EWA Creative Connect Goes to Los Angeles
We held our first EWA Creative Connect in Los Angeles during Grammys Weekend, bringing together senior global executives and African creative leaders for a focused working session on the future of Africa’s creative economy.
Creative Connect is a platform we built to engage the people who influence how deals are structured, how capital moves, and how intellectual property is managed across markets. Taking it to Los Angeles placed African industry leadership in one of the world’s most influential entertainment capitals at a moment when global interest in African culture continues to expand.
African music, film, and fashion now operate within mainstream international circuits. Artists headline global festivals. Catalogs travel across borders. Strategic partnerships between African companies and international firms are increasing in both volume and scale. As this growth accelerates, the underlying structures that govern ownership, distribution, and reinvestment become decisive.
Our discussions in Los Angeles centered on those mechanics. We examined publishing control, touring economics, catalog valuation, cross-border rights management, financing pipelines, and the standards required to sustain long-term growth. The exchange was practical and commercially grounded.
EWA Creative Connect forms part of our broader mandate through Entertainment Week Africa: strengthening the systems that support the continent’s creative output. Africa’s creative economy is valued at over $50 billion, with continued expansion projected across multiple sectors. Sustained growth requires coordination between creators, executives, investors, and policymakers.
By convening Creative Connect in Los Angeles, we advanced that coordination at an international level. The relationships and conversations initiated there will continue to develop as we move toward Entertainment Week Africa 2026 under the theme Closing the Gap, where our focus remains on strengthening infrastructure, standards, and long-term value creation across the continent.
